


The River Empties to the Tide

by saisei



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Ring of the Lucii (Final Fantasy XV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 15:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17449679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saisei/pseuds/saisei
Summary: AU: As a Crownsguard trainee, Prompto stayed behind in Insomnia and was there when the Empire attacked. All Ignis has to remember him by are pictures.





	The River Empties to the Tide

**Author's Note:**

> For Promnis Week Day 5 (January 17) Prompto is in Insomnia when Niflheim invades

"Hey, Iggy," Gladio asked, as they were stowing their bags in the Regalia and preparing to haul ass back to Insomnia. "You get in touch with Prompto yet?"

Ignis shook his head, so slightly Gladio'd have missed it if he wasn't looking. "I imagine the situation for survivors in the capital is chaotic. I'm hoping we'll find out more when we meet with the Crownsguard. Noctis is worried, as you can well imagine."

"And you're not?" Gladio pushed. "He's your damn boyfriend."

Ignis glared up at him sidelong, and Gladio nearly took a step back from the ferocity in his eyes. "What would you have me do?"

He had a point, which made Gladio ache all the more. He knew his dad was dead – it'd been in the newspaper, six paragraphs down from the king's demise. Nothing about Ignis' uncle, but why would there be? His death wouldn't be news. Jared was supposed to get Iris to safety in a disaster, and Gladio was clinging to that hope. He wasn't ready to be the last Amicitia, the way Ignis was probably the last Scientia, now. The way the expectations of all kings past had suddenly dropped on Noct's hunched shoulders.

"I hope the kid's okay, is all," he offered, and tabled the conversation after Ignis' resigned _me, too_.

Ignis shut himself down and turned himself off on the drive north. Gladio wasn't sure Noct noticed that he was now sitting next to an encyclopedia of statistics on Imperial dreadnaughts and robots instead of his childhood friend, who was dating his best friend, who was – who knew. Gladio stretched out across the back seat and tried to sleep. One of them should be well-rested.

The city was still a maelstrom of fire when they arrived at the lookout; the bridge was blocked off by Imperial troops, but mercifully no one was shooting at the boatloads of people fleeing the destruction. Noct spoke to Cor; Gladio heard from Iris; they all listened to Luna, very much alive on the radio. Ignis checked his phone compulsively, but had no news.

Days went by, then weeks, and the Prompto-shaped hole in their conversations remained. Gladio wasn't going to be the first to say that he was probably dead. He'd still been in training when they left, but even the Crownsguard trainees would have been assigned duties with so many foreign dignitaries visiting. When the attack happened, either Prompto was in the Citadel when it fell, or he'd have been defending the city from daemons with the Kingsglaive.

Gladio wished he knew how to bring Prompto up, or ask Ignis if he needed something. Noct sold pictures in Lestallum, and it was painful how all three of them conspired not to say that Prompto would have taken awesome photos. Noct made a deal with Vyv to get the pictures on his phone printed out – _because phones get broken all the time_ – and he told Ignis and Gladio to do the same. Gladio made copies of his family pics for himself and Iris. Ignis got a fat envelope but tucked it away inside his jacket without opening it.

Gladio probably knew what was inside, anyway. Prompto sent pictures to everyone, half of them selfies. Gladio'd figured out when he started dating Ignis because suddenly there the two of them were, cheeks pressed together as they squinted up at Prompto's phone. They'd been a cute couple.

He didn't think about Iggy's pictures again until one morning after Noct woke up in Altissia. Ignis went in to talk to him, and before Gladio knew what was happening he could hear Noct raise his voice.

"You, you of all people, should know understand better than anyone. Like you quit after Prompto died?" Noct was saying when Gladio reached the door. He was kneeling up on his bed, and Ignis sat on the stool facing away from him, head down and hands limp between his knees. He looked utterly defeated in the face of Noct's anger. "You kept going, and he told me you were the love of his life. What the hell, Specs?"

"My apologies," Ignis said after a moment. He pushed to his feet, and Gladio wanted to murder someone for how hesitant Ignis was as he moved now, feeling his way through the darkness. "The decision whether to continue on is yours to make, and yours alone. But do remember, we stand with you always and will help you bear your burdens."

"I don't want her to be gone," Noct blurted out. "What good is her notebook to me?"

Ignis turned, and made his way slowly back to the bed. He sat gingerly at the foot, and pulled the envelope of pictures out of his jacket pocket, now ragged and dirty. After a moment, he offered it to Noct, and pulled his hands back into his lap when it was accepted.

"You may have them," Ignis said, and then looked up, frowning. "You might as well come here, Gladio, if you're so curious."

Busted. But Gladio wasn't about to turn down the invitation, so he joined Ignis and Noct on the bed.

"The heart of sorrow," Ignis began, looking in Noct's direction, where he was taking the pictures out and spreading them on the sheets like a magician about to perform, "is separation. To be cut off from those we love, and to go on without." He cocked his scarred eyebrow at Gladio. "But our dead are no more gone because they are not here than you two are gone because I cannot see you. Or so I believe. At any rate, I find the thought a comfort."

Gladio reached out and took one of Ignis' hands in his own. "Dad used to tell me I could still talk to mom. Be angry with her, even."

Noct was sorting the pictures into piles, with no real system that Gladio could make out except that he shuffled all the tasteful nudes (damn, Prompto knew how to take a good photo) back into the envelope. "Luna was the only person who went away who wrote back, though," he said. He sounded so raw and childlike that Gladio didn't know whether to shake him until he locked down all his emotions and acted like a king, or if he should grab him and hang on like he did with Iris when she had a bad dream.

Ignis didn't hesitate, though. He gestured with their linked hands, and said, "Come here."

Noct swept the pictures to the side and crawled forward, into their arms.

Ignis was the first to start crying, with a sharp sudden sob like lightning heralding the storm, then Noct and Gladio. When there were no more tears, Noct put his hand on Gladio's forehead, over his scar, and cupped Ignis' cheek, and said in a low voice so rough he sounded furious, "Neither of you are allowed to die, you hear me?"

"Nor are you," Ignis snapped back, as if he thought Noct had _some nerve_ to leave himself out of that vow.

"You're both idiots," Glaido said, trying to wipe Noct away from his face. He was a persistent little bastard, though.

The next morning over breakfast, Noct was wearing the Ring of the Lucii as he sat and looked through pictures with Ignis, and Gladio's heart felt like it was being ripped in two. He took a deep breath and found the anger to focus with.

He was the King's Shield: he swore he'd honor all their dead, by getting them through this alive.


End file.
